Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-12

the porter considers your ticket as an
evidence of anything but Christianity
his very action attests. A lone, lorn
woman, unacquainted with this new
institution, presented her ticket for a
whole compartment. The porter es-
corted her to the section, disposed OF
her baggage, and said mysteriously
"Does he know de number? Coz, ef
he don't, you'd better scribe him to
me. Oars anudder lady expectin'
low-set man."
"I'm expecting nobody" the poor
woman gasped out. Il travelling
alone"
"De lawd Be yer?"s
1t was evident such an event seldom
happened on board that car.
The Battery is by no means quiet,
pastoral place on Sunday. The, eie-
waited railroads end there, and the
trains keep up a perpetual rattle and
clatter about the station. Tugs come
putting and sputtering up to Castle
Garden, towing barges loaded with
immigrants. A steamboat makes
half hourly trips from the barge office
to Bedloe's Island, where the gigantic
form of Liberty, that was intended
originally for beacon at the entrance
of the Suez canal, looms high above
the masts of the biggest ships in the
harbor. Ferry boats, tugs and steam
ships pass continually whistling spite
fully at each other. And yet the bat
tery seems to be favorite resort Tor
work-weary men who like quiet nap
on bench in the sunshine, Nobody
is permitted to lie opon the benches
and slumber, but here and there some
old fellow braces himself in a corner,
and goes to sleep as peacefully as an
infant.
The seawall, when the waves are
not beating against it aud drenching
the top with spray, is occupied by the
boys, young workingmen and Old tel
lows of sailor-like appearance who
dangle their legs over the edge, rest
their chins upon their hands and
blink at the water from under their
hat brims with no apparent lively in
terest in anything that is going on. A
battered little trunk, cast overheard
from some emlgrant ship, drifts
ashore upon the rocks at the foot OF
the wall, but excites no remark and
apparently gives rise to no reflections
among the listless leg-danglers. A
small boys curiosity is aroused,
however, and he chambers down
the face OF the wall, kicks hole in
the trick, discovers that it is empty
and leaves it there. Once in a great
while something else drifts in there
with the tide-the empty case of a
man-and the regular sea wall sitters
live in the hope that the mild excite
ment caused by such flotsam may
some day reward them for their pa
tient watching. But few of these
ghastly drift escape the boatmen who
are always pulling along in front Of
the wharves. They are found long
before they float down as far as the
Battery.
The first very warm days of summer
after the milder heat OF spring takes
the chill from the water in the river,
bring to the surface many an unknown
body, and the morgue-keeper is kept
busy making boxes for them and
sending them to the potter's field. II
is strange that very few of these prove
to be the bodies Of persons reported
missing. Most of them have fallen
from wharves, or been thrown into
the river by thieves, and never beer
missed by anybody. They are un
known and seldom are identified. Ii
years gone by some boatmen made g
precarious and grisly living by rowing
along the rivers day and night, look
ing for floating bodies. They were
paid for each ore found, and some
times drowned mans pockets were
worth exploring before the coroner got
hold of him.
The old boatman at the Battery
says: "We don't go looking for float
ers any more. There's nothing in it,
and there's nobody now who follows
up the business. Sometimes we &C
over to one of the islands for a body
when the undertaken gives us the job,
and the man from the morgue always
comes down on the wagon with the
money. You see, over there at the
island, where the fort is, they dom
like to have body left on the shore
Most of 'em that gets past the wharve:
drifts up on the islands, you know
When the children over there SEE
a fioater drift in they pes
stones at it, and their folks dom
like that, so they telegraph over t.
have the body taken away. What
would we do if we come across body
floating out there in the water? Why
let her float. If we towed it ashore
here the authorities would swear We
found it the other side of the channel
and that it belonged to Kings County.
They give US fits for putting the ex,
pense OF burying it upon this county
Same the other side, too, SO we don't
dare touch 'em except when we're
ordered and get paid for it. Besides,
a man don't like to take foater into
a nice boat for nothing. Any
thing in their pockets? Not often.
Them that jumps overheard don't
generally have anything and the other
kind get cleaned out before they're
thrown in. did find one this spring
with $1,000 is some foreign notes in his
pocket. | didn't think the notes were
any good, and | lett 'em in the pocket.
The police took 'em and said the
money'd be turned into the public
treasury. l found out afterwards
those notes were good anywhere.
Catch me picking up any more bodies
for the police. l guess those notes
didn't get far toward the treasury.
know didn't get cent for fishing the
fellow up. Oh, s'pose if l saw one
floating by I'd pick it up, but l don't
follow up the business any more, and
| guess nobody else does" KANs.